I’m Gracie (@graciecreates) from the Archer and Olive ambassador team! As a self-proclaimed playlist wizard, music is one of my favorite things to include in my junk journal. Whether it’s illustrating lyrics from my current favorite song, making collages of my favorite artists, or making a visual interpretation of a playlist, music is always finding its way into my journals. Here I’ll be showing you how I incorporate collaging & stationery bits with my favorite songs of the moment to create a collage playlist for your junk journal. 

Supplies you’ll need: 

• Your junk journal - I’m using a Traveler’s Notebook from Archer & Olive
• (Optional) Mini print outs of your favorite album covers - or you can draw them instead!
• Your favorite fineliners, pens, or markers
  
• Washi tape, scrap paper, stickers, and any other collage-y bits you have sitting around
  
• Tape runner or glue stick
  
• Scissors
  
• (Optional) Printable playlist grid - I created a printable sheet with a base grid for a playlist - fill in your favorite songs with just pens and markers or use the sheet as a base for collaging on top of!

When shopping for supplies at A+O, you can use my code graciecreates for a discount!

Printable Link

Step 0.5: Plan your playlist

Before you start working on your playlist spread, think about what playlist you want to illustrate in your junk journal. You can scroll through your Spotify or Apple Music and pick a playlist you’ve already created, or create an entirely new one for the journal spread. When I’m making a playlist with the intention of also creating a visual element (the journal spread), I like to pick songs that fit a certain theme so that the journal spread comes out looking more cohesive. For my example spread, I picked songs with album covers that all had a similar color scheme. 

Step 1: Gather supplies

For any junk journal spread, I like to start by gathering any supplies or scraps I’ll need for the spread. I included a blurb above with the basics (tape, scissors, your journal, etc.) but you’ll also need to think about what extras you’ll want to include on the page. For this specific spread, I printed the album cover for each song I’ll be including in the playlist, and some scrap pieces of paper to use as background elements. Look through your scrap bins, paper trimmings, and junk drawers. The beauty of junk journaling is getting to reuse scraps that would otherwise end up in the trash!

Step 2: Make a cluster for each song in the playlist

For each song included in the spread, you’ll want to create a dedicated cluster of paper. Onto a base rectangle of paper, you can add the album cover, write out the name of the song, or add stickers or washi tape to decorate it. Depending on the size of your journal and the size of each paper rectangle, you can include however many songs you can fit! For my example, I included 8 album covers and picked 2 songs from each album to add to the playlist.

When junk journaling, I like to think about the layout in different clusters like this. The busy, eclectic nature of a junk journal spread can be hard to visualize before you start, so making individual pieces like this, and then later adding them on to the page like puzzle pieces, can be helpful in filling out the page. 

Step 3: Add each song cluster to your journal page

Once you’ve created a paper cluster for each song in your playlist, you can begin to arrange them on the page. You can add some paper scraps onto the white background of the journal page to add even more texture and color before laying down each song. You can use a tape runner to add them, but with thicker/chunkier pieces, I usually lean towards using a glue stick for added hold. 

Once you’ve got all of your songs laid onto the page, you can add a title for the playlist or extra stickers or washi tape to finish off the spread. And there you have it, a visualized playlist for your journal!

Video Tutorial

Looking for more collage ideas for your junk journal? Check out this blog post from ambassador team member Caroline for a tutorial on how to create a collage cluster for any journal.  

You can find more creative goings-on in my corner of the internet, @graciecreates on Instagram and YouTube, and @groovygraciecreates on TikTok. If you do this project, share with the A&O team on socials! Tag us @archerandolive and use the hashtags #AOShare and #archerandolive